The present invention relates to the field of electronic communications and, more particularly, to the automatic conversion of email threads into collaborative workspaces.
Organizations rely upon a variety of electronic communication systems to conduct daily business. Systems providing communication services such as email and online collaboration environments help to bridge the distances between geographically dispersed users. Email is often the primary means of exchanging and/or distributing information to a group of users.
However, the effectiveness of email exchanges, referred to as threads, tends to decrease as the thread grows. That is, the more replies made by the participants of the email thread, the more difficult it becomes for the participants to absorb and/or organize the data presented within the email thread. Further, the open-nature of email allows for participants to exclude existing participants and include other participants in their replies. This creates additional email threads that are separate from, but related to the original email thread. These additional email threads and the original email thread then continue to grow and consume more storage space within the email system.
A collaborative system is a better option for discussions that have a high amount of activity, such as a large quantity of replies and/or exchanges of large amounts of data. However, at the start of an email thread, the amount of activity the email thread will generate is not known or easily predicted. Once the email thread has progressed to the point where it becomes obvious that a collaboration system is a better medium, participants are faced with transferring the contents of the email thread into the collaboration system manually or foregoing the data of the email thread by starting the topic anew in the collaboration system. Regardless of which option is selected, the data of the email thread is left within the email system until deleted or archived by individual participants, since participants often do not have the means by which to remove the email thread as a whole from the email system once it is no longer needed.